Universe Today
"It’s your turn to show us what should be preserved in DNA forever. We want people to go out and take a picture of something that they want the world to remember — it’s a fun opportunity to send a message to future generations and help our research in the process.”
"With DNA, Nature really nailed information storage at the molecular scale,” said Ceze. “Our goal at MISL is to explore how to build revolutionary systems around it. ‘Memories in DNA’ gives everyone an opportunity to participate and a way to preserve cherished memories. And now beyond planet Earth! We are honored to be part of this incredible project."
"Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more," said Karin Strauss, a Senior Researcher at Microsoft. "Collaborating with the Arch Mission Foundation on the Lunar Library is a natural extension of that mission beyond planetary boundaries. With this collaboration, we show the value of human knowledge and the incredible density achieved with storing digital information in DNA. This work with Arch continues to push the boundaries of what’s possible in increasingly exciting ways and remarkable directions.”
“We aim to build the largest library in DNA ever - and it will continue to get larger as our capacity grows toward petabyte scale in the future. We’re proud that this addition to the Lunar Library - our first Special Collection - builds on our mission of preserving data by safeguarding both classic works and precious memories. This data is an exciting beginning to our Lunar Library Special Collections and a worthwhile continuation of Arch’s mission to lead new frontiers of data preservation.”
In case those who find the Library do not have the necessary technology to access it, the Arch Mission will include instructions on how to sequence DNA and obtain the information contained therein. With this new partnership in place, the UW team is working hard to finalize all their packaging and storage plans and meet the 2020 deadline.
As Karin Strauss, a senior researcher at Microsoft and a UW affiliate associate professor of computer science and engineering, expressed:
“We’re proud that this partnership with Arch continues to push the boundaries of what’s possible in increasingly exciting ways and remarkable directions. This is an incredibly exciting project and we have a great multidisciplinary team working on it: coding theorists, computer architects, engineers and molecular biologists, all coming together to make this new technology a reality.”
